Variables críticas del proyecto

Just as earlier themes have involved the positioning of CrossFit as an ally in women’s fight against “backward thinking” about women in the health and fitness industry, CrossFit is represented as an advocate for gender equality in sport.186 As Reebok’s trademarked “Sport of FitnessTM_{,” representations of CrossFit as a sport emphasize its positioning of gender as one that}

advocates on women’s behalf. Discussions in the articles about the way which “people still associate sports with gender and...talk of boys playing ‘girly sports’ or girls playing ‘boys’ sports’” position gender equality in sport as a pressing issue.187 Though the narrative acknowledges progress in the realm of women’s sport, work by sport sociologists Messner and Cooky (whose work incidentally informs my own) is cited to point out persistent gender inequalities in sport, with

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Messner quoted as concluding, “It’s really gotten so much better. But, at the same time, it’s far from equal and there’s still quite a long way to go.”188 _{The use of academic voices reinforces the}

assertion that there is what one article refers to as an “abysmal” gap between men and women in sport.189

Offered up as an alternative to other sports, CrossFit is represented as unique in its approach to gender equality. Evidence of CrossFit’s equalizing approach includes examples like the equal airtime given to women and men at the CrossFit Games.190 _{Similarly, the way in which “at the}

Games, men and women compete in practically identical events and sometimes side by side” and that “top female finishers receive the same amount of prize money as top male finishers” are celebrated.191 While granted these celebrations are warranted, they are also ways ways of promoting CrossFit as an alternative to the rest of the sports world:

...Chances are good that even today, when you think of the word “athlete,” your initial vision isn’t of someone with a baby in tow or a penchant for knitting. Female athletes are still more likely than men to juggle responsibilities of home and family along with their athletic pursuits, and the word “fairer” is only beginning to be an apt expression of the way women athletes are paid in comparison to men. (Just five years ago, in 2007—the same year that CrossFit held its inaugural Games—the Wimbledon tennis tournament finally resolved to pay equal purses to winners of both sexes.).192

CrossFit’s founder, Greg Glassman, is applauded for his efforts in regards to gender equality and is quoted as saying, “CrossFit is as close to leveling the field as we can.”193 _{That “in}

CrossFit.com programming, women are not told to do less work than men “is also offered as testament of CrossFit’s dedication to giving women the chance to “choose what to lift, and many can beat male counterparts using the same loads.” 194 _{Responding to criticisms that CrossFit.com}

ought to prescribe lower weights for female participants, Glassman makes it clear that his choice was intentional, arguing that criticism of his approach “presumes women need weight prescribed for them.” He adds: “Let them figure it out. My girls are so fuckin’ smart.”195 _{Instead of}

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distinguishing women from men, the narrative suggests that women can excel when they are not held back by expectations associated with their gender:

Certainly, CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman didn’t underestimate the capabilities of female athletes when he designed the program. Women perform workouts alongside men at affiliates around the world. In the Games, some of the workouts are identical for men and women. Sometimes, the women beat the men in head-to-head competitions.196

The narrative includes a consideration of some of the obstacles rooted in pre-existing notions of gendered behaviour which persist and sustain inequality, attributing these not to the fault of CrossFit but to women’s failing. The dearth of female coaches at the elite level of CrossFit is attributed to the fact that “females aren’t as willing to promote themselves,” a key consideration in making themselves known in the world of CrossFit coaching.197 Such reticence, in CrossFit’s view, extends beyond the space of sport: “[As women] we hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.”198 _{The perpetuation of the gender gap is attributed to failing women, who}

thus have to change their own ways. Here, CrossFit’s position as pro-equality is protected through the framing of persistent inequality as the result of women’s failures.

4.2

The “F”-Word: Feminism and CrossFit

As I argued above, the CrossFit narrative foregrounds women who take charge of their physicality and body image in the CrossFit gym, and it similarly focuses on women who take responsibility for making change on an individual level when it comes to gender issues. Such an approach towards change even occupies the term feminism itself. According to this empowerment narrative, “the word ‘feminist’ has been...’bastardized’” by “overreaching” feminists who “want more than just equality for women” and “alienate the male gender” in the process.199 _{Instead of}

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makeup,” female CrossFitters are represented as part of a different shift to a more equal world.200

By virtue of having joined CrossFit, where membership appears to offer only an individualistic approach to tackling gender issues and a do-it-yourself approach when it comes to empowerment, women can identify themselves as advocates for gender equality without labeling themselves feminists.

Instead of seeking shared intervention, women can effect change as individuals by participating in CrossFit activities. In this way, CrossFit claims to challenge the status quo:

Gender stereotypes are still very much alive and well in our mainstream society, but the CrossFit woman’s “strong” mentality is persistently chipping away at them. Change is happening, however slow it may be. By constantly reinforcing with photo or video evidence that women lifting weights and doing pull-ups are, in fact, worthy of a spot on the sliding scale of femininity, we are changing the culture we live in.201

Women who engage the CrossFit narrative thus are different—they “outright refuse to accept the dainty and polite gender role they’ve been assigned, preferring instead to grunt their way through 80 pull-ups, clench their teeth lifting three times their own body weight, and break a serious sweat finishing a 400-metre sprint in less than a minute and a half.”202 They, unlike women who do not do CrossFit, have access to a special kind of empowerment:

We female CrossFitters do pushups, not Pilates. “We take pride in our community that pushes us to our limits and offers support along the road to our goals. We revel in learning new skills each time we set foot inside the box, and love the feeling of lifting that barbell loaded with seriously heavy weights that the magazines said we shouldn’t lift. We eat the calories our muscular bodies crave. We grow stronger and more empowered with each rep.203

While I would not argue about the existence of a gap between men and women in sport and while I applaud CrossFit for paying its male and female winners the same amount of money and for providing women with a greater amount of media coverage, suggesting that a social issue like gender inequality is best remedied through CrossFit and especially through its associated

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individual action without addressing sport and society and the conditions which sustain the inequality simplifies an exceedingly complicated issue. As noted in the introduction, in the 1990s, corporations began to draw on the female athlete as a cultural ideal to sell products and services to women under the guise of feminine empowerment. With the ideal woman representing one “who gets beyond all the old gender stereotypes and does whatever she pleases,” these CrossFit trailblazers can be considered perfect reconstructions of the “trained, determined, self-reliant female athlete” offered up in these campaigns.204 _{Scholars have discussed the capitalization on this}

image in the name of the selling of a king of “popular feminism” as problematic, diverting attention away from collective efforts aimed at affecting institutions and structures that affect all women to instead affect only those with the access to the consumption-based empowerment.205 Further, the way in which the empowerment available via CrossFit sustains the framing of “women’s agency expressed as identification with consumerism” serves to maintain women’s position in an oppressive gender structure.206

4.3

The Improvement Imperative

Throughout the themes presented above, an ongoing narrative constructs individuals as in need of constant improvement. According to this narrative, individuals are not living up to their full potential. Women are thus presented with the suggestion that they must constantly be putting effort into being “better,” encouraging ongoing self-assessment and the deeming of oneself as lacking and in need of intervention. According to this narrative, CrossFit is at its essence about constantly seeking improvement and is thus particularly useful in regards to achieving this necessary self- work. As one article in The CrossFit Journal says, “The desire to improve and seek perfection

drives CrossFit.”207 _{This desire is unrelenting, encompassing an overarching theme in the texts—}

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Whether focused on performance, health, one’s body more generally, or life outside of the gym, this improvement imperative normalizes a constant search for improvement. “Optimizing” the self becomes the method, requiring continual self-work-based in the understanding of the body as an ongoing project. Goals are essential, monitoring keeps you on track in the pursuit of improvement, and individuals are required to dedicate themselves to being better than their former selves, which are thus deemed deficient. The inevitability of this constant pursuit of improvement is posited as ostensibly inevitable ‘human nature’ efficacious “since the beginning of time”:

I truly believe in my heart of hearts it’s just ingrained in us as humans to push the limits and find new boundaries for ourselves. Since the beginning of time, man has behaved in this manner, and somewhere in all of us that fire still burns, albeit some feel it more than others, but it’s still in there. … There burns a fire in each of us, it is up to us to embrace that very real, very personal struggle and allow it to transform us into what we are meant to become…our fullest potential.208

CrossFit is offered up as the most efficient way in which individuals can pursue this notion of personal optimization. Workouts are seen as ways to improve oneself, as one article offers: “Every time I say yes to a workout, I am choosing to re-create who I am. I am choosing to move myself forward toward flourishing.”209 _{CrossFit is seen as a means to transform not only the physical}

aspects of a person, but also goes “a step further: forging elite lives and making people better.”210

This betterment is described as “exactly what CrossFit is: giving your best—not just once but every day and in everything.”211 _{The way that “CrossFit...is more than exercise”and how “CrossFit not}

only brings improved fitness but also creates improved people” are reiterated over and over again.212

Several articles talk about how these improvements via CrossFit are tied to an improved character or to the virtue developed through participation:

[Aristotle]’s overall point is that when we “train”—physically, morally,

intellectually—(and, indeed, when we don’t), we are molding not just our bodies or behaviors, but also our very characters, and in doing so, we are cultivating a

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core set of virtues that either enable or hinder our ability to flourish as human beings.

I have come to see that CrossFit—all of it: its nutritional focus, mental rigor, physical pursuit, community spirit and more—manifests Aristotle’s principles. CrossFit is not just a workout with a physical goal. It is also, and maybe even primarily, about cultivating a set of character traits that can enable a person to flourish in all aspects of life.213

Emily Beers, in a later CrossFit Journal article, makes a similar point, from the more applied, practical perspective of the focused participant:

Character comes from adversity, and fitness is developed the same way. ... Things that go uphill have to be pushed. It has taught me that there are no bad lessons or workouts—just really hard ones. If I want to be stronger, I have to lift heavier weights. If I want to learn how to manage my time better, I take on a second job. If I want to be a better CrossFit athlete, I have to train the things I dislike. If I want to learn how to love with greater capacity, I need to have some children. Strength comes from struggle.214

The implication here is that to participate in CrossFit—or not to, for that matter—carries with it a moral significance. CrossFit is offered up as much more than a physical pursuit, perhaps less about the body and more about character at the end of the day: “CrossFit’s tests of “fitness” are really, at their root, meant to test—and cultivate—a stoic character.”215 _{Those who do not take up}

CrossFit are characterized as weak of character: “The workouts require so much effort that people of weak character just don’t want to do them.”216 _{The stoicism and the willingness to do something}

as challenging as CrossFit is what sets CrossFitters apart, but this is exactly what makes people better for doing it:

CrossFit isn’t universally attractive because it isn’t easy. But what a way to share that anything worth achieving comes with a substantial sacrifice and commitment at the hands of blood, sweat, tears and bodily fluids. Its discipline, accountability, and achievement radiate out into every other endeavor in life. Its mental

training—training for life—that literally makes better people….217

The character available to people via CrossFit is required in order to live one’s best life, or as one article says, “to be one’s best self, thrive, and vibrantly inhabit the world.”218 _{Readers are}

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instructed that what happens “in the gym is often a reflection of what happens in the outside world,” given CrossFit’s emphasis on “virtuosity,” or what it defines as “performing the common uncommonly well.” 219 _{The use of language like “character” and “virtuosity” point to the moral}

significance assigned to CrossFit participation and its associated self-mastery.

As a way of demonstrating CrossFit’s potential to transform individuals beyond the physical, story after story of people who have taken up CrossFit and benefitted in a myriad of ways are included. Those specific to body image or motherhood have already informed the development of these earlier themes, but the broader inclusion of testimonials on CrossFit’s potential in relation to everything from improving one’s sex life to passing the SATs serves to reinforce the notion that anything we do in our lives, we can do better.220 These testimonials, wide-ranging in terms of the topics which they frame CrossFit as capable of positively affecting, function together to lend discursive power to the notion that CrossFit can help women with their body image woes, their roles as mothers, their pregnancy concerns, their appearance, and so on. It is so taken-for-granted that CrossFit can improve one’s life—whatever that life might entail—that it becomes easier to take-for-granted its power of it to empower women without questioning, for example, the CrossFit definition of an empowered woman. Further, the way in which problems to be remedied are offered up as such—things in need of intervention—encourages individuals to assess themselves as lacking and in need of intervention.

Faced with these self-identified issues requiring intervention, individuals are stimulated to consume. Always requiring improvement, this creates a context where individuals are perpetually prompted to consume by an inescapable requirement to be better. This affects both men and women, but sets an important stage upon which no woman is ever considered good enough— beautiful enough, accepting of her body enough, loving enough, competitive enough, strong

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enough, etc. That one can always improve, in a way, encourages a continual assessment of oneself as lacking. A woman asking herself, Am I fit? may very well deem herself to be so. However, I can be fitter! suggests that she ought to not only continue on with her current consumption but also up the ante, seeking out that ever elusive ‘better’: “you can do this for the rest of your life; there are always ways to improve!”221 _{Framed as inspiring, that “absolute mastery of CrossFit is simply}

unattainable even by the best” is celebrated as a way to “keep you continually motivated and engaged.”222

Considered critically, framing this ideal of “better” in a motivational narrative is the capitalist dream, ensuring that individuals will, no matter where they stand, continue to deem themselves in need of improvement and associated consumption. As one improves, “better” is never reached but shifts ahead of the individual. “Better” is like a carrot one dangles in front of someone to lure them forward, but this carrot can never be delivered as it is by definition unattainable. While people would likely respond negatively to being told outright that they are not good enough and will never be good enough, calling them to greatness and assuring them that they are full of untapped and unlimited potential frames the need for improvement and its associated consumption as positive.

Endnotes for Chapter Four

1 Smith Maguire, Fit for Consumption,192.

2 Kim Turley-Smith, “Modern Warrior Women,” Sweat Rx, March/April 2013, 83. 3 Ibid.

4 Julie Olson, “The CrossFit Life: It’s Mom’s Turn,” CrossFit Journal, May 2012, http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_CFLife_Mom_Olson.pdf .

5 Emily Beers, “All in the Same Room,” CrossFit Journal, November 2011, http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_CFLife_Mom_Olson.pdf

6 Emily Beers, “In Search of a Programming God,” CrossFit Journal, December 2011, http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Programming_Beers.pdf

7 Ibid.